You’re almost a senior in high school, or just starting college, and you think you might want to spend your life helping animals? What a great idea! Animals need your help and the next generation of animal lawyers is going to revolutionize animal protection laws. If you want to do something important help animals, and impress your parents with a smart career — animal law may be for you!
A wide range of classes are useful, including sociology, political science, psychology, economics, history, anthropology, science, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and computer science. Make sure you keep a high GPA!
An average starting salary for a new animal lawyer is around $50, 000. Many lawyers practice in the private sector and incorporate animal law into their practice. In this case, the pay scale would be based on salaries at private firms — and vary depending on the size of the firm, and the location.
California Dog Bite Lawyer
Animal rights nonprofits such as the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Mercy for Animals, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), employ animal lawyers. Many attorneys offer their services to the Animal Legal Defense Fund on animal related cases pro bono, or free of charge.
Being an animal lawyer requires an above average capability in skills such as reading, writing, speaking, listening, and analysis. In addition to those skills, being an animal lawyer takes an incredible amount of patience.
Overall, animal lawyers work indirectly with animals; however some cases may require the attorney to interact with animals. In addition to working with passionate coworkers (and maybe some friendly animal companions in the office), animal lawyers work with judicial employees, legislators, clients, and the public.
Meet Vandhana Bala, A Badass Vegan And Animal Rights Lawyer
This depends on the type of law you choose to practice. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has three main focuses: filing lawsuits, helping prosecutors charge animal abusers, and animal law education — working with law schools, law students, and law firms on incorporating animal law into their legal profession.
Many consider the animal protection movement one of the greatest movements of our generation. It’s a great time to get involved because there is so much work to get done and each individual has the potential to have a major impact on making the world a better place for animals.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund provides a listing of available positions throughout the animal law field - including joining our team! Check out available opportunities now!Are fish sentient beings? Can invertebrates suffer pain? These are the questions that regularly exercise the world's top animal lawyer, Antoine Goetschel
Animal Cruelty Lawyer Criminal Defense Attorney Florida Statute 828 12
W hen Patrick Giger, a 34-year-old angler from the Swiss village of Horgen, cast his baited line into Lake Zurich's storm-swollen waters on an icy February morning last year, he could not have forecast the trouble he would end up reeling in alongside the 22lb pike which was soon to snare itself on his hook. The day ended with the monster fish being devoured by Giger and his friends at a local restaurant, but just a few months later Giger would face, on the instructions of the state prosecutor for the canton of Zurich, criminal prosecution for causing excessive suffering to the animal after boasting to a local newspaper that he had spent around 10 minutes, and exerted considerable physical effort, landing the fish.
The pike has gone on to become something of a poster child for the animal rights movement in Switzerland. It has even attracted more than 6, 000 fans on a Facebook page set up in its memory. But the fate of this fish also acts to highlight the political divisions in Switzerland over just how far to push its animal rights legislation, already hailed as arguably the toughest anywhere in the world. The ultimate test will come this Sunday when the country will decide in a referendum – or people's initiative – whether an animal should be represented by a lawyer during any criminal trial in which it is judged to be the victim. The canton of Zurich has had just such a lawyer – or animal advocate, as the incumbent prefers to be called – since 1991, but the campaigners who garnered the 100, 000 signatures required to automatically trigger a national referendum are now hoping animal advocates will be required by law in all 26 cantons.
Antoine Goetschel, Zurich's animal advocate since 2007, acted in court on behalf of the pike two weeks ago when Giger's trial finally came before a judge. Giger was subsequently acquitted, but Goetschel is still hopeful that when the judge finally submits his written summary of the trial in the coming weeks he will clarify what time-length is acceptable for a fisherman to land a fish.
Phoenix Dog Bite Attorney
For some in Switzerland the apparent absurdity of a dead fish having its own legal counsel – let alone placing such a legal time limit on anglers – displays that the animal rights agenda has now gone too far. However, supporters of the referendum argue that this strikes at the very ethical and philosophical heart of animal rights: why shouldn't an animal, they argue, have the same legal right to representation as any other victim in a criminal trial? And when you open that particular Pandora's box, a whole slew of other chewy questions follow. For example, do all animal species deserve equal rights? If an elephant deserves a lawyer, what about that defenceless slug squished underfoot by a vengeful gardener? Such questions have been troubling moral philosophers for centuries, but it could soon have a practical application in all of Switzerland's criminal courts.
Are fish sentient beings or not? asks Goetschel rhetorically, as he thumbs the shelves of his law firm's library, located in downtown Zurich not much more than a fly cast away from the lake where his client once swam. This is the sort of question I am asked to consider in such cases. This fisherman was boasting that it took him around 10 minutes to bring in the pike. The state attorney asked me to look into it. This is my job. I found a case judgement in Germany that said anything over one minute is too long so I used this as evidence. It was uncomfortable in the court as I had 40 fishermen against me. But I ask you this: if we put a hook in the mouth of a puppy and did the same thing for 10 minutes, what would our reaction be? With farm animals there is a strict, legally enforceable time limit between capture and death, so why not with fishing?
Goetschel rejects his critics who claim this all amounts to yet another money-spinner for lawyers. He says he handles 150-200 animal cases a year which, in total, take up about a third of his time. I get paid 200 francs [£124] an hour for representing animals, but the fee for my other work is 350-500 francs per hour so I don't do this for the money, he asserts. In 2009, I received 78, 000 francs [£48, 000] in total – just enough to pay for half an assistant at my office.
Curbing Animal Cruelty
So who does pay for his time? Clearly not the pike and all the other animal victims he represents in court. I'm designated by the canton government to do this job for four years, he says. The state pays me, otherwise it would be seen that I'm too close to being a representative of an animal rights NGO. For me it is about conviction rather than money. It's a thrill for me to make the public think about the animal/human relationship.
There is a core principle of fair justice that underpins his work, he explains. Animals can be, and often are, treated poorly by their human masters. But while this person can defend themselves, the animal cannot. Not even a vet can act on behalf of the animal in court.
In late 2008, a new animal act passed into law in Switzerland. It runs to 150 pages and explains in great detail how dozens of species are to be kept and treated by their owners, be they companion animals or livestock on a farm. In November, the law will finally become legally enforceable meaning the owner of, say, a rabbit could be prosecuted for keeping their pet in a hutch that doesn't meet the legal criteria.
Animal Cruelty Lawyer Calgary
A dwarf rabbit, for example, must be kept in a hutch no smaller than 50cm x 70cm, with 40cm headroom. They must also have a nest box, or the ability to dig. (Curiously, gerbils are accorded more head room than rabbits.) The new rules for dogs are even more exacting. Dogs are deemed social animals and, therefore, must have daily contact with humans, and, as far as possible, with other dogs. If kept in outdoor kennels, they must be chain free for at least five hours a day and kept in pairs, or with other compatible animals. It says they must be walked daily, but the act fails to specify for how long or how far (which has angered some campaigners).
0 comments
Post a Comment